DCSDTechnology

Welcome to Winter Weather

For all you scientists out there.

Would you like to give real time feedback to students when they are working on an assignment in class even if they are not all on the same problem? With the Classkick app you can. Classkick allows the teacher to give personalized, real time feedback, the moment students need it. Students can also collaborate and learn from each other. The teacher creates assignments, quizzes, and worksheets. Students complete the assignments on the ipad or in the web browser. Feedback is private and can be given by the teacher or by other students. Classkick is available for ipads and any web browsing device, and its free. Check it out at ​https://www.classkick.com/

A Trip Down History Lane

Have we really changed that much?

Looking for a great way to infuse technology into your classroom? Click the image below to register for the 2017 UCET Technology Conference.

This is a national multiplication competition for students K-6. Teachers can make a trial account for free and sign up their students to compete. There is no cost to participate and students can compete for class prizes as well as individual prizes. Join the fun and get your kids excited about math.

Thoughts of the Month

Which Browser Should You Use?

We often get asked this question. There are so many issues from flash, java, compatibility and other problems to make choosing the right browser for you a tough question. Everyone also has the one that they are most comfortable using, or the one they like the best. Even here in the department we are divided on the issue of which browser to use. Some of us use Firefox, some Chrome, most of us try not to use Safari. To try and answer the question here is a video that might help you, or just muddy the water more.

I hope that helped you some. Maybe to help a little bit more here is a comparison of the top browsers performance. The first three test in this chart represent the outcomes on three different test suite dealing with Javascript applications. The final test represents compliance with HTML5 which is the current evolution of the HTML standards. As you can see there is a difference to which one is best, depending on which test you run. Also it depends on what you are trying to do. So in the end, as my daughter said, " just use the one that you like and will do the things you need it to."

Searching the Internet Tips

When you have students search the internet, and you want to limit their searches to a certain type of webpage; like .edu, .gov, or .org. You can use the following format.Examples:

Donald Trump site:.gov or "Donald Trump" site:.org

​​​Related and link are two tools to find just what they imply. The format looks just like this.

related: whitehouse.gov or link:whitehouse.gov

Sometimes you visit a site you have used for years only to find out they have updated and changes things. You can try this next one to see if there a stored/cached version

cache:amazon.com

Searching for a specific title try the intitle option.

​intitle:Who Moved My Cheese

If you want to the search based on the text on a certain page, or quote you can use the in text option.

​intext:nerf herder

If you are wanting a specific filetype. Suppose you were looking for a worksheet to use in class, and you wanted a pdf format, or a powerpoint. You can use this option.

revolutionary war:pdf

There are many more options you can use to filter your search results. You can simply type a math problem into the search bar and it will solve the problem for you. Conversion can be do the same way too. So the simple internet search has become so much more if we choose you use it that way.